Land dispute on a school parking at Seremban

Last Saturday as I was driving with my wife towards Seremban town, we saw many people gathering at a Chinese primary school and a police patrol car was also parking at the road side. I told my wife there must be something unusual and it looked as though the parents were gathering there for a demonstration against something as a few reporters were also at the scene, busy taking photos.

The next morning we read in the newspaper that it was actually due to a dispute between a developer and the school authority as the school’s parking was sitting on the land belongs to the developer and the developer intended to demolish the parking for commercial purposes.

That land used to be a government reserved land and was used by the school as parking as long as I can remember since I moved to Seremban. Just a narrow strip along the road before the wet market, about 30,000 sq ft that the developer bought for RM 300,000.00 many years ago. It was never an issue in the past as the previous owners never raised any issue and allowing the school to use the narrow strip of land for parking. But the present land owner seemed keener on his own gains rather than the public interest.

The developer accused the school authority for indecisiveness as the school had turned down a few offers by him. But the school authority was blaming that the developer was too greedy as he wanted to sell that piece of land for RM 2.8 million for what he had bought for RM 300 thousand. We don’t know who is right and who is wrong but if the developer resorted to forcefully demolish the parking, even though he has the legal right to do so, then this developer, who is also a China man must have let his own greed to blow up his top. As reported by The China Press, this developer even engaged security personnel armed with firearms to guard that so bloody precious piece of land and creating unnecessary tensions.

The developer could have known of the status or the land and its circumstances before he bought it and he seemed so determined to convert a land used for parking for a Chinese primary school for his own wealth. For those who were educated in Chinese primary school will know how hard to keep it alive as there are many obstacles such as lack of funding and so on and as such, the Chinese primary schools nationwide very often conduct their own fund raising donations for expansion work or other purposes. I guess one of the reasons why the Chinese primary school is still standing nowadays is because of the generosity of the Chinese community in donating their hard earned money to support its survival.

But sadly, there are people so money-minded that they’re putting their own wealth ahead of public interest. As Chinese always put it, “never give up on education no matter how poor one is”, some businessmen simply don’t get it, that’s just too bad.

Gunners' spirit

I had wanted to watch the Arsenal-Barca match live the previous night but it was telecast in the wee hour so I opted for a replay on Astro. But it was just too bad that the match was replayed at 12 midnight last night, and a late sleep was still unavoidable after all. I guess having known the result, the game was not so excited anymore, not as nail-biting of course especially Arsenal seemed unable to overturn a 0-1 deficit until late minutes in the second half.

But the highly spirited young gunners never seemed to give up and very persistent in attacking which had resulted in Van Persie scoring the equalizer and Ashavin netted a winning goal, both late in the second half. The whole Emirates soared, and you could see tears coming out from the eyes of Arsenal fans in the stadium, tears of joy of course and tears of deep emotion too, as their young heros lived up to the expectation of attacking football and defending their home ground with high spirit.

The young lads such as Theo Walcott, Van Persie, Fabregres, Jack Wilshere were staying positive all the way despite a goal down, clawing back for a memorable win eventually. A fine football match is not all about skills, tactics or strategies, not all about precise passing or scoring beautiful goals. Team spirit is above all that will motivate the players and move the fans. Young gunners have displayed immense characters and never-say-die attitude and the fans were greatly moved by their fighting spirit.

Can Arsenal overturn Manchester United to win the Premier League then? They will if they show that sort of spirit when they were fighting Barca.

A mother poisoning her own kids

I have a lot of respect for mothers as they have to go through the labour pain that men could not even imagine how painful or stressful it will be. Mothers have to endure the greatest pain in their life to give birth to their babies and thus a mother’s love is immeasurable. That’s why when I was young I didn’t argue much with my mother or grandmother. There were too many occasions that I was disrespectful to my old man but never to my mom.

I don’t celebrate birthday and I think that it should not be celebrated anyway, hey come on, your birthday is simply the most painful day for your mother and dare you put up a disco party to celebrate a day that was also a day your mother fought for her live to give birth to you? That’s why I think many people celebrating their birthday in a wrong way. Throwing up a party and having a gala time with friends? It shouldn’t be celebrated that way, you should instead bring your mom out, go to a decent restaurant, treat your mom with the foods that she likes the most and not forgotten to buy her a present. A lot of people are expecting to receive birthday present every year but forgotten to give their mother a present.

But of late, there are women that are so cruel that they’re so heartless to murder their own children. They could be undergoing mental stress, depression or simply put it, they are mentally unstable, otherwise, how could a mother flung her daughter from a tall building and then jumped to her death. How could a mother poisoned her own kids and then committing suicide?

Unlike other critical illnesses that could be relatively easier identified by doctors, depression in any forms is not as easy to be indentified and treated, it is just like a time bomb that could explode anytime, and anywhere and often lead to a tragedy that could hurt a family forever.

You only live once

When I was 17 years old, life was so simple then. It was all about studying and having fun, not much of a pressure I guess except for examination times burning midnight candle and having palpitations so often when sitting in examinations. Not much of entertainment at that point in time, no facebook, no twitter, no internet, no computer, no hand phone, no sms and thus life was less complicated and more enjoyable if you really love nature because our entertainments were all about playing games, fishing and swimming at the river, jungle trekking and so on.

As my house was located just at the side of our paddy field, naturally it became the play ground for me and my younger brothers and no joke, you can have a lot of fun there, fish-catching during rainy season and playing football or flying kite after harvesting at dry period. We used to do a lot of high-jump practices at the paddy field using the bamboos as pole and bar and heap of paddy straws as pit. Believe me, there was hell lot of fun playing in a paddy field, it was actually better than theme parks. Very often, we went back home with an itchy body after sunset and whatever unhappiness during the day could have easily been forgotten after some enjoyable moments in the paddy field.

I don’t remember having much stress when I was a young boy but as I’ve said, it was a much simpler life at that time, as long as we have enough food to keep our stomach full or half full, some cloths to keep us warm, I don’t see why should a person complaining. Although I did envy my friends who were living in bigger houses and their fathers driving big cars while my father was riding a Honda cap selling fish and vegetable in the kampong but my parent gave us a safe shelter and enough food, and to be honest, that’s all we needed. Although there was no KFC or McDonalds, my grandma could fry a better chicken than KFC and until today, those long gone dishes prepared by my grandma who passed away years ago were still the best food that I’ve ever tasted. Even though now we can afford to go to expensive restaurants and eating abalone, shark fin, expensive seafood and etc, etc, but I doubt these expensive delicacies are tastier than those home cook prepared by the people that we loved.

And during my young days, I’ve never heard of any teenagers committing suicide. Never heard of young people jumping from a high building to kill themselves but maybe at that time there was no so many high rise building around. But come to think of it, life becomes more and more complicated as human being advances. For instance, facebook is a good invention to allow a better social communication but sadly, it can also become a tool to churn out domino effect, negative one especially.

Not too long ago, a guy committed suicide simply because of a failed relationship and he posted some disturbing comments on his facebook saying that he was going to kill himself and he did. A few days ago, another 17-year ago girl posted similar thing on her facebook and she jumped from a second floor at her school and died due to serious head injury reportedly also due to a failed relationship.

Wow…….when I was 17, the thing that I scared the most was to see a dentist or doctor, tooth extraction was a nightmare, and when I saw nurses holding a syringe for injection, my ball shrunk but nowadays, youngsters are so daring to jump from a high floor to kill themselves and I wonder if a person can have the gut to face death, why are they not having the courage to solve whatever challenges or obstacles, we only live once after all.

4-2-1 New Year Celebration

So fast, tomorrow is Chinese New Year and Chinese all over the world are busy travelling back to their hometown to be with their families. In modern society where people leave their hometown to earn a living elsewhere, perhaps the festive period is the only time in a year when all in one family can meet each other, gone are the days when a big family living under one roof.

I read a piece of news a couple of days ago that Chinese New year could even be a big headache to some of the families especially in mainland China. The one-child policy implemented since the seventies to curb exorbitant increase in population poses some social problem in China. Why? A couple is only allowed to have one baby and thus they have 4 parents (own parents and in-laws) and one kid to look after, 4-2-1, so to speak.

The couple could be from different hometown which are far apart, one in the North and another from South for example and when come to Chinese New Year, the only time they can be together with their family, the biggest argument will certainly be where to celebrate, husband’s place or wife’s place and as I have said earlier, their home town could be very far apart, one in Kunming and one in Beijing for instant, too far that it is practically impossible for them to be going back to both places.

The biggest problem is that both parent and in-laws are only having one baby, if the husband decided to go back to his hometown and the wife’s parents will surely celebrating a lonely new year and likewise. No wonder some people chose to go back to their own place but then again there will be another big issue, who the baby should follow, father or mother.

It sounds funny but it is actually a way of modern life that a better understanding is required not only between the husband and wife but also their parents.

Rains wreak havoc again....

Last Friday while awaiting my flight from Lahad Datu to Kota Kinabalu, there was heavy downpour, so heavy that part of the small airport in Lahad Datu was flooded and I could actually see a massive traffic jam along the road outside the airport. The small airport at Lahad Datu is just sitting at a walking distance from the town. I used to walk from the Executive Hotel which I usually stay to the airport as it is so close. I was having some bad feeling that our flight might be called off even though we were already called to the boarding room. It was still pouring outside and I doubt the Mas Wing Fokker could land as the runway was inundated.

The flight at 2.40 pm was eventually cancelled as the plane from Kota Kinabalu could not land after a few attempts due to bad weather and flooded runway. It became very messy as some of the passengers were on connecting flights from Kota Kinabalu to other destinations. Mas Wing then gave 3 options; one, to take the last flight on 5.40 pm but that limited to a few available seats; two, to divert some passengers by taxi to Tawau then take the 9.00 pm flight to Kota Kinabalu and the last option, stay up one night on their expense at Lahad Datu to take the earliest flight the next morning.

I could not get the first option as the last flight was limited to a few seats and the bugger who lined in front of me actually took up several seats for him and his accompanies and neither did I like to travel all the way to Tawau by taxi as I was already sick of travelling by roads over the past few days so I chose to stay back. Never mind the staying back, but the rearrangement was rather chaotic; there were insufficient taxis for those passengers opting to go to Tawau, and naturally these increasingly annoying passengers became more and more impatient and thus making more grudges.

And for the whole flight cancelling episode in Lahad Datu that day, only two ground staff attended to 50 or 60 passengers and no wonder the rearrangement was rather slow. I was waiting for my hotel voucher from 3.00 pm and only got it at 5.00 pm before the hotel vehicle arriving at 6.00 pm due to a massive jam at town despite the short distance. As I was going into the hotel vehicles two other passengers from the last flight arriving from Kota Kinabalu were also coming in and these guys shared with me their more panicky experience as they were those supposed to land Lahad Datu at 2.00 pm which was supposedly the flight I was boarding at 2.40 pm.

It seemed that the plane they were boarding failed to land due to poor visibility and flooded runway and after a few unsuccessful attempts, the pilot decided to fly back to Kota Kinabalu thus my flight was then cancelled. I asked him how the situation on board was and he said he was scared to death as there were heavy rain and strong wind, and that bloody small Fokker was flying like a kite in a thunderstorm. The next morning as I was on the hotel vehicle to the airport, the driver told me that a car was swept by the flood water into the river then into the sea and the rescue team rushed to save the car, it was so fortunate to discover that there was no one inside.

Rains cause havoc over the past few days as my friends in Segamat were helplessly worrying about rising water at their home and electricity was cut off in several areas. As other people are happily getting ready for Chinese New Year celebrations, our friends in areas severely affected by floods have to endure all sorts of problem due to such untimely floods.